Reply To: Machine guns per unit

[MartinR]

In 1914, the Germans had six MGs per Regiment, not per battalion. A Regiment had three battalions, so 2 guns per Bn, same as the Brits.

The Germans increased the size of the Regimental MG company quite rapidly and eventually assigned an MG company to each battalion.

The British went the other way, expanding the battalion MG platoon from two to four guns and stripping the Vickers out into brigade MG companies. The infantry got the incomparable Lewis gun in exchange, something the Germans were a tad jealous of.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke